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America's National Parks

( Updated: 05/12/2014 )

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Summer is here and many people from around the world will be visiting America's national parks. The National Park Service expects over 270,000,000 guests at parks every year. Yellowstone National Park is one of the most popular – every year at least 2 million tourists enjoy the park's wildlife and unique geothermal features. Yellowstone was the first American national park and is renowned for its bears, wolves, bison, geysers, and hot springs. Newscom

Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, one of the oldest national parks in America, attracts tourists from all over the world. Layers of rocks dating back to the Precambrian era can be seen in the deep canyon, in incisions created by the Colorado River. Newscom

Katmai National Park and Preserve, located in southern Alaska, is a sprawling wilderness known for its brown bears and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, a 40 square-mile pyroclastic flow. The park contains at least 14 active volcanos. NOAA

Acadia National Park, located on Maine's Mount Desert Island, allows hikers, bikers, and campers scenic views of islands, lakes, the ocean, and pine forests. The island is crisscrossed with over 50 miles of rustic carriage paths originally constructed by John D. Rockefeller Jr. Newscom

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, located in New Mexico's Guadalupe Mountains contains a network of limestone caves, including the second largest cave chamber in the world, the Big Room. The cave's numerous stalagmites, stalactites, and other limestone formations attract over 400,000 visitors annually. Newscom

Florida's Everglades National Park is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, visited by over a million people every year. Unlike most national parks created to preserve geographic features, the park was created to preserve a fragile ecosystem, home to many endangered species. Water from the slow-moving rivers has been drained by people for over a hundred years, and ecosystems in the park have suffered significantly. Newscom

Joshua Tree National Park, located in southeastern California, is immense at nearly 800,000 acres. Extremely popular with rock climbers, the park is also an attraction for campers, bike enthusiasts, bird watchers, and hikers. Zuma/Newscom

Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park is a large natural amphitheater containing tall thin spires of rock called 'hoodoos,' created by erosion from water, wind, and ice. The park attracts over a million tourists annually. Newscom

Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park is named after the highest peak in the Teton mountain range. Hikers visiting the park can enjoy almost 200 miles of trails through pine forests and observe animals like moose, black bears, wolves, elk, and deer. Newscom

South Dakota's Badlands National Park contains almost 250,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, and is visited by over 800,000 people per year. The park is known for the distinctive banding patterns of rock exposed by centuries of erosion. Newscom

Mesa Verde National Park, located in Colorado, contains ancient ruins built by the Pueblo people known as the Anasazi in the 13th century. The park is known for its cliff dwellings – structures built within caves and and under outcroppings in stone cliffs. The Cliff Palace is possibly the largest cliff dwelling in North America. KPA/Hackenberg/Newscom

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is located in Colorado and contains the tallest sand dunes in North America. The always-moving sands are carried by winds from the Rio Grande river and deposited here. The park also features lakes, pine forests, and a diverse array of wildlife. KTR/Newscom

Sequoia National Park, located in California, is famous for its giant Sequoia trees, including General Sherman, one of the largest trees on earth. The park also contains Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the 48 contiguous states and attracts nearly a million visitors every year. Newscom